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07
Jul
Harrogate hospital to pause recruitment as it aims to save £30 million
Harrogate District Hospital is set to pause recruitment and reduce its reliance on temporary staff as it looks to save more than £30 million.
Jonathan Coulter, chief executive of Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust, said the hospital has planned for a deficit of £12 million for 2026/27.
However, to achieve this the trust has to save more than £30 million.
Speaking to the Stray Ferret, Mr Coulter said the trust had put some measures in place, including a reduction in reliance on agency staff, to save money.
Mr Coulter said:
We’re not the only ones in the country in this situation, but this is not the place we want to be in. We want to be balanced. That’s the plan for next year.
Some of the actions we are taking include trying make sure we control the use of temporary staff and agency staff. That can be controlled quite quickly.
Mr Coulter added that the trust was also set to pause its recruitment while it worked over the summer on what staff it needed for the services it will be providing.
Jonathan Coulter, chief executive at Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.
It comes as the trust, which operates Harrogate District Hospital and Ripon Community Hospital, recorded a deficit of £22 million in the last financial year.
Mr Coulter previously claimed the organisation was “under-resourced for the work that we do” and was at a “significant cash risk”, which delayed payments to suppliers.
However, he told the Stray Ferret that NHS England was now set to provide the trust with £10 million to help support its cashflow.
He said:
They [NHS England] have recognised our problem and have promised us some cash to help us through the next few months.
The trust also commissioned multinational consultancy firm KPMG to carry out the work to review its finances at a cost of £50,000.
Mr Coulter said the firm had advised the trust to improve its productivity, its procurement strategy and manage its strategic areas better, such as diagnostics where the trust is seeing increased demand.
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